


Feverwood Academy for Rebel Witches

by LauramourFromOz



Series: The Adventures of Hubble & Hallow [6]
Category: The Worst Witch (TV 1998)
Genre: (Australian) Aboriginal Kinship Systems, F/F, Same-Sex Marriage, lgbtq+
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27991479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauramourFromOz/pseuds/LauramourFromOz
Summary: Fen and Gris are getting ready to open their school. But first, they want to show some old friends around.This takes place in around 2008 in the 1998 Series universe.
Relationships: Constance Hardbroom/Imogen Drill, Griselda Blackwood/Fenella Feverfew, Mildred Hubble/Ethel Hallow
Series: The Adventures of Hubble & Hallow [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2039242
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Feverwood Academy for Rebel Witches

**Author's Note:**

> The word 'Alumni' is the masculine plural form, though it is used to refer to groups of graduates that contain men and women (male or mixed gender graduates). 'Alumnae' is the feminine plural form which is used to refer to groups of female graduates. Cackle's being an all girls school, Alumnae is the correct form to use here.
> 
> Also:  
> Audio = I hear  
> Video = I see  
> Disco = I learn  
> Doceo = I teach
> 
> Which, I think is quite a good motto for Fen and Gris' school.

Feverwood Academy was situated in a gloomy, drafty castle about five miles from Cackle's. It was a locale only Fen and Gris could have found. The school was mostly set up, all that it needed now (apart from pupils) were some long established traditions, a few ghost stories and some folklore, which was where the gang of fellow Cackle's Alumnae came in.

It had been a while since they'd all been together. They saw each other individually. Sibyl Hallow had spent some time doing post graduate research at AWU outside Alice Springs and hadn't really been heard from by anyone other than Mildred and Ethel for a while. Ruby had become a bit of a recluse along with her mad inventor persona. Fen and Gris themselves had been quite consumed establishing Feverwood since they returned from their own postgraduate stint at AWU. Maud had been teaching chanting at an academy near Aberdeen. Jadu was teaching spell science in an utterly unpronounceable part of Wales. Enid had spent the last several years doing almost everything, almost everywhere. She had a pseudo half home base in Belfast but she was there less often than not.

All this made everyone very hard to pin down to the same place at the same time.

The first thing Mildred and Ethel saw when they arrived was the sign, which read:

FEVERWOOD ACADEMY

FOR REBEL WITCHES

Followed by the emblem Mildred had helped them design, a stylised purple bat in front of a grey full moon on an orange and green shield and then:

Heads: Miss Fenella Feverfew and Miss Griselda Blackwood

_"Audio Video Disco Doceo"_

_Est. 2008_

"I thought they were joking about the 'rebel witches' thing," Ethel remarked.

"So did I, I like it though."

"I don't know it's exactly what perspective parents want to see."

"That's probably the point."

"What about our girls, here or Cackle's?"

"My luck we'd end up with boys and have to find some co-ed school."

"We are not sending our sons to Pentangles."

"Ethel, did I say Pentangles?"

"With a bit of luck we'll get a rebel witch and a not so rebel witch and we can keep all of our witching academy running friends happy."

Their discussion regarding the education of their, thus far, non-existent children was cut short when Fen and Gris appeared to meet them.

It wasn't long before the Jadu, Ruby, Enid and Sibyl arrived.

Sibyl had just returned from Australia for a visit and was very brown. Her hair was longer too and she looked as if she'd gained some muscle and flesh while she was over there. She looked good and it seemed to have done wonders for her constitution. Ruby was looking a little like she hadn't been outside in several months and she looked as if she'd not been eating properly. She didn't look sickly exactly, but she did look vaguely ill. Jadu, Maud and Enid looked the same as eveer, aulthough Maud had lost a little weight.

"Wasn't Clarice coming," Sibyl said once they'd settled in.

"Clarice couldn't make it. She's on bed rest," Mildred said.

"Bed rest?" Sibyl had a feeling she was missing something.

"You have been in Australia a long time," Gris said, "Clarice is very pregnant she thought she'd be alright to come this weekend but she hasn't been doing too well for the last couple of weeks."

They ordered pizza for dinner and, after tipping the confused and creeped out delivery boy generously, they all sat around on the floor in the great hall to eat.

"So," Fen was saying, "learn any secret Australian magic yet, Sibyl?"

"Secret Australian magic?" Jadu said.

"Rumour has it," Enid said, "that's where HB learned her vaguely omniscient disappearing trick."

"The Australians do all sorts of weird rites and rituals that they won't tell the rest of us about, or so they say," Maud added.

"Oh, you mean..." Sibyl trailed off, "well, yes but I can't talk about it."

"We were just talking about your stock standard weird Australian crap but you got let in on..." Gris said.

"HB?" Fen asked.

"HB," Sibyl replied.

The three of them refused to elaborate when the e others pushed for more information and they eventually changed the subject.

* * *

It was almost midnight and they were exploring the castle. The thing about exploring vaguely spooky old castles, especially ones that house magic schools, is that it is best done in the middle of the night. That way one can experience optimal levels of creepyness and spookyness. They let the castle draw them to the secret places, nooks and crannies that only pupils were supposed to be able to find.

This expedition found at least a dozen rooms that Fen ad Gris had not yet discovered and were not on the floor-plan, which wasn't much better than a drunken sketch on the back of a napkin.

This, Sibyl thought as they all dragged a sizable sealed chest that weighed approximately a metric ton from one of said hidden rooms into the hallway, was probably not an activity for a very pregnant Clarice.

In case they couldn't find the rooms again, they'd put certain things out in the hallways. It was near dawn when they turned in.

* * *

There was a cauldron of fresh porridge bubbling away at the head platform in the dining hall, along with various options to accompany it. The hall was filled with round tables which sat about ten. Only one was set while the others were covered by drop sheets, the roof having recently been repaired.

Sibyl was the last to trudge in.

"I'm still on Alice Springs time. It's yesterday afternoon," she'd said tiredly when she sat down.

Fen and Gris had solved a lot of the unnecessary miserableness from their Cackle's days with quite simple solutions.

Breakfast, for instance, was to be porridge. To combat it being generally cold and horrible as soon as it was brought up from the kitchens and served, it would be prepared and served from the dining hall as would the pancakes every second Sunday. Pancake Sunday would fall on alternate weeks to 'Full English Friday' which would be prepared down in the kitchens and served using the magical servery Ruby had invented which would also be used for lunch and dinner most days. This saved the kitchen staff the half hour journeys between the kitchen and dining hall which eliminated unintentionally cold meals.

As it was now frowned upon to make schoolchildren go hungry if they missed breakfast, the porridge (which was also bottomless) would stay out all day before a fresh batch was put out at six in the morning and kept just right using a Goldilocks spell (designed by Maud), because not letting (or making) schoolgirls go hungry is not a frivolous use of magic, no-matter what anyone says.

* * *

Before the day was out Feverwood had a complete folklore (or enough to start with) as well as a suite of age old traditions to be implemented for the first time in the coming year. Enid had even had the idea to borrow some cackle's girls to taunt the first years as they arrived. Fen and Gris had taken it under advisement.

"So, Maud," Gris had said over lunch, "how do you like Aberdeen?"

Maud made a non-committal gesture. Truth was, Aberdeen was fine. The school was fine. The girls were fine. The boys, who she had almost nothing to do with, were fine. The other staff were fine. It was all fine. Something was missing though.

"Because, we were wondering," Fen continued, "if you'd come on as chanting teacher and deputy head. We could use you. The woman we had lined up backed out."

"I..." Maud replied, "Yes, I'd love to."

"Well then, welcome aboard." Gris said.

* * *

A few hours before everyone was due to leave HB arrived.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Gris said, "Sibyl, have you participated in a mapping rite yet?"

"Yes, once."

"Good, we're going to do one," Fen said.

"A what?" Mildred said.

"A mapping rite," Sibyl explained," it's some of that weird Australian magic we were talking about the other night."

"I hope," HB said," that you three haven't been discussing things you shouldn't."

"No, Mum," Gris said.

"What," HB said, less harshly than one would expect, "have I told you two about calling me that?"

"That it's roguishly endearing?" Fen said.

HB gave them both a look.

"Only to do it on country," Gris amended.

No explanation for this form of address was offered and Mildred, Ethel, Jadu, Maud and Ruby remained confused.

"Sibyl, HB, follow us," Fen said.

"The rest of you, split up, so we can see if this works," Gris added.

* * *

The room Fen and Gris lead HB and Sibyl to was roughly the same size as the great hall and directly above it. It had been cleared of all furniture and was eerily bare. The hardwood floors were freshly treated and polished and the room was generally free of dust and cobwebs.

As they performed the ritual lines burned into the floor, mapping out the castle and grounds. When it was finished there were nine markers on the floor. four in this room, marked 'Constance Hardbroom', 'Sibyl Hallow', 'Griselda Blackwood' and 'Fenella Feverfew'. One in the kitchens, marked 'Ruby Cherrytree'. Another in, what would be one of the pupil's rooms, marked 'Jadu Wali'. One out on the parade ground, marked 'Enid Nightshade’. And two more in the staff-room, marked "Ethel Hallow' and 'Mildred Hubble'.

"I told them to split up, what are those two doing together," Gris said, pointing to Mildred and Ethel's markers.

"I don't think they're physically capable of being more than about fifteen feet apart at the moment," Sibyl said.

"Still?" Fen said, "Their whole accentual empathy ritual has to have been at least... what? five years ago? Surely it's worn off by now"

"It has, only lasted a month or so. This is either another magical misadventure or them being... all sappy and romantic. As it's them it's even money either way."

* * *

_August 2014_

Seven years later, almost to the day, Feverwood got a new sign. It was almost identical to the first except it read:

FEVERWOOD ACADEMY

FOR REBEL WITCHES

Heads: Mrs Fenella Feverfew and Mrs Griselda Blackwood

_"Audio Video Disco Doceo"_

_Est. 2008_

There was a rainbow stripe behind the motto which shone silver.

A couple of characters didn't seem like it aught to make a difference. Their rings glinted in the sunlight. A couple of metal bands, two tiny words... it made a difference. They'd barely dared dream of it at Cackle's. 'My wife Fenella', 'my wife Griselda'. They'd been running around the midlands saying it for a fortnight. Now they were back, in time for selection and the new school year. Maud, their faithful deputy, had been holding down the fort while they'd been away, overseeing the preparations for the new school year.

"You like it?" Maud said.

"It's perfect," Gris said, "Who..."

"Wedding gift from the staff. Millie did it for us. When you said you were going to wait until the the school's tenth anniversary to change it... We decided it was already seven years too late.

"Thanks, Maud," Fen said.


End file.
